The present invention relates lymph node detection and segmentation in medical images, and more particularly, to automatic axillary lymph node detection and segmentation in 3D computed tomography (CT) image data.
Lymph node analysis is a difficult task and accounts for a significant part of daily clinical work in the field of Radiology. In particular, lymph node analysis is important for cancer staging and treatment monitoring. Lymph nodes nearby primary cancer regions are routinely assessed by clinicians to monitor disease progress and effectiveness of cancer treatment. This assessment is typically based on 3D computed tomography (CT) data. When the cancer treatment is successful, the lymph nodes decrease in size. Finding the lymph nodes in the CT data is typically time consuming and highly dependent on the observer's experience. Furthermore, when performed manually lymph node measurements are subject inter- and intra-observer variance and human error. Accordingly, automatic lymph node detection and measurement in medical images is desirable.